Peter Ferrara, who says Palin’s resignation is “a brilliant liberating move for her career, and a potential turning point for the national conservative movement,” writes at FoxNews.com: “She should also lead the nation’s mothers to oppose mandating replacement of incandescent light bulbs with the new mercury poison gas bulbs.”
(Thanks to TPM Reader JB for the catch.)
It seems like old times — Barack Obama and John McCain release dueling messages on Independence Day. That and other political news in today’s TPMDC Fourth of July Roundup.
Gov. Palin releases a new statement explaining her sudden (which she says was not sudden at all) decision to resign her office little more than half way through her term of office.
Palin’s attorney, Thomas Van Flein, has also sent out a letter rejecting claims that Palin’s resignation is tied to investigations of the Wasilla Sports Complex, during Palin’s tenure as mayor, or their house on Lake Lucille. In the letter Van Flein also threatens defamation suits against Alaska blogger Shannyn Moore, Huffpo, Washington Post, the NY Times and MSNBC for discussing these claims.
TPM Reader MC checks in …
Am I living in Bizarro world? Does anyone really think that there is any realistic way Palin could be a candidate for President after resigning as governor? Yet pundit after pundit is saying this is a “risky” move that “may pay off”. This is absolutely preposterous, and any professional putting such ideas into print should be relegated to writing copy for infomercials. All one needs to do is imagine the campaign ads (Can we Trust S.P. to Finish What She Starts?; Palin Quits When She’s Tired, Winners Quit When They’re Done; or just string together a few clips from the Mistake by the Lake) to realize there is no recovering from this. This is no wily strategic move; it’s running from a scandal.
As I said earlier, I think there’s a small chance there’s no specific scandal and that Palin is just very mentally unstable. But MC is 100% correct that any pundit who thinks this is some risky but potentially brilliant strategic move is absolutely smoking crack. Hitting the crack pipe, or, just as likely, being witlessly contrarian to set themselves apart from the common herd of sane people. The kinds of ads MC mentions are right on the mark. But they’re really only the beginning. Read More
Post publisher Katharine Weymouth to readers: We sure screwed the pooch on those planned pay-for-access private dinners.
Rumsfeld, on abandoning Geneva Conventions: “All of a sudden, it was just all happening.”
I’m reading Philip Rucker’s Washington Post piece on Sarah Palin’s decision to resign her governorship. Supposedly, personal attacks, particularly attacks on her children, played a major role in her decision to step down. But can we still bring up the fact that most of the supposed ‘attacks’ on Palin’s family and children were self-generated efforts to use her children to garner more publicity and keep herself in the spotlight? The infamously silly Letterman incident being only the most recent example?
Please?
Late Update: A very good point from TPM Reader RW …
It is shocking that a paragraph like this could appear in one of the nation’s 2 major newspapers (from the Washington Post):
Yet Palin’s vulnerability masks her firepower, ambition and strong will, advisers said. Not one to fit comfortably into convention — and not comfortable being a victim, either — Palin spoke Friday as if she was rolling the dice and betting on herself. She presented herself as a game-changer stepping onto a stage of her own making.
That is absolutely unreal. I’m guessing Philip Rucker, the author of this article, didn’t bother to listen to Palin’s resignation speech (or pretty much any public speech Palin has given since McCain tapped her for VP). Just wow.
I’m sure Rucker saw the speech. But it is bizarre to say that Palin is uncomfortable in the role of the victim. In fact I’m not sure I’ve ever found a better use for this much over-used word. As Noam Scheiber explained in one of the earliest and perhaps most insightful profiles of Palin, victimhood and resentment are Palin’s twin touchstones. They define who she is.
“Halfway through her first term as Alaska’s Governor, Sarah Palin has done so much for her state and her nation … Still, there is much left to be done, so let’s help Governor Palin continue the job she was elected to do without all these petty distractions.”
From the presumably soon-to-be-revised ‘About’ page at the Sarah Palin Legal Expense Fund website. (Thanks to TPM Reader AL for the tip.)